News 19 is learning more about the man arrested for the kidnapping of 4-year-old Heidi Renae Todd of Charleston, including that he'd just been released from prison.
Todd had been missing since Tuesday, February 13, around 5 p.m, when police say she was abducted from her home on Johns Island.
Thomas Lawton Evans, 37, was arrested Wednesday night in Meridian, Mississippi hours after police found him and Todd in Riverside, Alabama.
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Police say they were checking on a driver sleeping in a vehicle parked in a wooded area when they discovered Evans and the 4-year-old. Police say Evans sped away after handing Todd over.
News 19 has learned that Evans was released on probation in Spartanburg County on February 1, 2018. This came just two weeks before he allegedly brutally beat Todd's mother during the kidnapping.
An inmate disciplinary report showed that recently, while in custody, Evans was disciplined for hostage taking and possession of a weapon on December 18, 2017.
The prisons system said he held his cellmate in their cell by threat and intimidation, and was internally charged with hostage taking and possession of a weapon. He was punished and placed in solitary confinement.
Other disciplinary reports during his time in prison include possession of narcotics and threatening to harm an employee. He had been in prison since 2010, serving a 10-year sentence for armed robbery.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections says he was released to community supervision by the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services after serving 85 percent of his sentence. As is standard practice, he was released af the first of the month as his sentence was set to expire.
Police say he's from the Charleston area, which explains why he would have been in the area. What's not clear is why he targeted the Todd family. Investigators say they're still working to determine the motive.